Antique treasures
Not far from Tangier, between Larache and Asilah, lies one of the country's most astonishing archaeological sites: the Cromlech de M'Soura. 170 menhirs, most of them standing upright and ranging in height from 50 cm to 6 m, are placed in a circle around a burial mound. The area around Tangier is also home to some incredible ancient treasures. The ruins of the city of Cotta can be seen on Cap Spartel. Here you'll find the remains of a temple, thermal baths and farms, as well as large cement vats that testify to the existence of oil mills and garum factories (a condiment highly prized by the Romans and made from fish milt).
But the site that most spectacularly illustrates the ingenuity and splendour of Roman architecture is without doubt the archaeological site of Lixus, not far from Larache. It was here that Morocco's largest salting factory was discovered, comprising a dozen workshops and almost 150 basins. Alongside these quasi-industrial facilities, a genuine city developed, with a theater featuring not only a tiered hemicycle but also, more unusually, an arena; and thermal baths with a tepidarium (warm room) whose superb mosaic pavement in marble, stoneware and ceramics, featuring medallions with geometric and floral motifs and a magnificent representation of Neptune, can be admired. The cyclopean structure (made of solid stone) of the Acropolis' foundations testifies to the importance of this space, where a series of temples unfold, including Temple F with its cella (sanctuary containing the statue of the celebrated divinity) lined with elegant porticoes.
Hispano-Moorish splendors
In Tangier, as in the surrounding towns, urban planning and architecture were profoundly influenced by the Hispano-Moorish style, which was deployed both by the Arabs who returned to Morocco after being expelled from Andalusia, and by the Spaniards themselves, who held sway over the area for a long time. This stylistic heritage can be seen in the rich decoration of the buildings, which combine wood carving, wrought ironwork, splendid zellige (ceramics), stucco and plasterwork, arcatures with sculpted geometric or floral motifs, and water architecture featuring fountains, patios and basins.
Running for several kilometers, extending their massive, crenellated silhouettes, the oldest parts of which were built in the 15th century by the Portuguese before being reinforced in the 17th century by Moulay Ismaïl (as were those of Asilah and Chefchaouen), the city's ramparts bear witness to a powerful defensive architecture, of which the monumental gates known as Bab are the proudest representatives. Often framed by bastions and crowned by merlons, these gates are also impressive for their decorative repertoire, which combines arches (round-headed, horseshoe-shaped, etc.) and floral or geometric motifs. In Tangier, the Bab Al-Fahs is a superb vestige of this past power, as is the Porte de la Mer in Asilah. But it's undoubtedly the city of Tétouan that boasts the finest example of this defensive architecture, with its historic wall running for almost 5 km and pierced by 7 elaborate gates, including the beautiful Bab Al-Oqla.
Chefchaouen and Tangier, in particular, also boast another type of fortified architecture: the kasbah, both citadel and palace of the sovereign, built on the heights of the medina. In Tangier, the kasbah is home to one of the city's most beautiful buildings: Dar el-Makhzen, a superb palace with zellige cladding, chiselled plasterwork, painted or carved wooden domes, curved columns, white marble capitals on the patio columns, a garden with Andalusian accents and, above all, the ancient treasury, a hypostyle hall with a painted cedar ceiling supported by 16 columns. In the shadow of these mighty fortifications lie the legendary medinas. Vaulted or corbelled passageways, narrow alleyways, arcades overhanging alleyways and flights of stairs intertwine in a labyrinthine maze serving squares (often lined with Spanish-style arcades), markets and fountains with elegantly curved and interlaced ceramic decorations. To find their way around, some even devised a specific system of street paving, as in Tetouan, where the main streets leading to the gates of the medina were distinguished by 4 rows of cobblestones. This maze is made all the more mysterious by the fact that the walls along the alleyways are almost completely blind. Behind imposing doors, elegantly decorated with sculpted ironwork and woodwork, paintings and impressive copper nails, and often protected by carved porches or cedar wood canopies covered with glazed tiles, a unique and intimate world is revealed. Everything takes place inside, around a garden adorned with a basin or fountain. This oasis of freshness is bordered by galleries leading to the various rooms in the house. It is this garden that distinguishes riads from dars, simple one-storey or two-storey houses built around an open inner courtyard. The roofs of these dwellings are often terraced, and their juxtaposition creates a kind of suspended second city. In Chefchaouen, this urban habitat has two other astonishing features: roofs covered with Roman tiles giving the whole a resolutely Mediterranean appearance, and above all a coating oscillating between blue and mauve meant to both preserve freshness and protect against insects!
It's also in the heart of this medina that you'll find the splendors of Islamic architecture, foremost among which are the mosques. These are organized around a courtyard lined with porticoes, with a fountain or ablution basin at its center. The vast prayer hall, often wider than it is deep, houses two key elements that are often the focus of much decorative attention: the mihrab, a niche carved into the wall to indicate the direction of Mecca, and the minbar, the pulpit for preaching. At the corners of mosques, the minaret, from which the muezzin calls for prayer, elegantly imposes its square or octagonal silhouette, sometimes adorned with earthenware or sculpted geometric motifs, crowned with merlons and surmounted by a lantern, sometimes topped by a decoration of 3 or 4 superimposed copper spheres of decreasing size, known as a jammour.
Among these Islamic masterpieces, don't miss the Sidi Bou Abid Mosque in Tangier, with its minaret entirely covered in polychrome earthenware, the Great Mosque (built on the site of a former Portuguese cathedral!) and the superb minaret of the Kasbah, with its earthenware and merlons. In Tétouan, don't miss the beautiful Sidi Es-Saïd Mosque, with its zellij-decorated minaret, and the Sidi Ben Messaoud Mosque, with its superb sculpted entrance. But it's Chefchaouen, considered an authentic bastion of the faith, that is home to the largest number of mosques, shrines and minarets in a variety of shapes, from massive and square to slender and polygonal. The medina is also home to medersas (Koranic schools), also organized around an inner courtyard adorned with an ablutions basin and encircled by elegant arcades; fondouqs, warehouse-hotels with stores on the first floor and galleries serving rooms upstairs; baths and hammams; and, of course, the legendary souks. Despite their sometimes somewhat disorganized appearance, these meccas of trade and exchange are logically organized, with each artisanal pole having its own zone. The alleys of the souks are often covered with trellises to guarantee shade and coolness.
Mixing genres
From the 19th century onwards, the presence of Europeans, particularly the French, led to a Westernization of urban planning and architecture. New towns sprang up outside the medinas, following regular plans punctuated by wide arteries lined with buildings featuring large windows, balconies and often mansard roofs. At first, these new neighborhoods succumbed to the sirens of a resolutely historicist eclecticism. The Montagne (which boasts a dog cemetery... arguably the most European of urban additions!) and Marshan (the legations district) are adorned with authentic architectural follies, from neo-Moorish villas to Alsatian villas and colonial palaces such as Villa Mabrouka or Palais Mendoub. The most astonishing representatives of this eclectic fever are undoubtedly Saint Andrew's Church, which blends the very sober lines of Anglicanism with a resolutely Baroque-Moorish decor, and of course the former German legation known as "Les Terrasses Renchhausen", whose lines blend classical harmony with a very Prussian Rococo decor. Ceuta also boasts fine examples of this eclecticism, but here resolutely influenced by Spain, of which the city is an enclave. Don't miss the Plaza de los Reyes with its triumphal arch and the House of the Dragons, combining Moorish decor and arcades with a European-style mansard roof.
Under the impetus of Spanish architect Diego Jimenez Armstrong, Tangier was adorned with the colors of Art Nouveau, whose finest representative is the Grand Théâtre Cervantès covered with sculptures by Sevillian Candido Mata Canamaque; before transforming into an Art Deco whirlwind, which some see as the perfect link between the geometric forms of Islamic art and the clean lines of European modernism. Among the finest examples of this trend are the Cinémathèque, with its colorful facade and terrazzo floor (a material made from colored fragments of granite and marble); and the Hôtel El-Minzah, which combines sober exterior lines with a rich Andalusian patio.
The Marshan district is also home to a number of buildings in the paquebot style, a variant of Art Deco, which can be recognized by the porthole windows and the curves of the balconies, carved like those of a ship's cabin. The new town's main thoroughfares were then transformed into authentic laboratories of modernity, with the most striking examples being public buildings with functionalist lines borrowed from Le Corbusier, the Roxy Cinema with its imposing glass-paved facade that oscillates between Bauhaus and International styles, or the 60s buildings with their marble, bronze and wood-panelled entrance halls, not forgetting the stunning Notre-Dame de l'Assomption Cathedral, with its blue-and-white concrete, heralding the advent of Brutalism. All these styles give Tangier a unique atmosphere.
Contemporary effervescence
From the 1960s onwards, a massive rural exodus led to urban growth that the city was unable to stem, and huge shantytowns sprang up, where poor-quality villas and low-cost housing rubbed shoulders with precarious dwellings made of tin and wood. In the words of the great writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, "these new towns were dominated by disorder and improvisation". This situation did not prevent the development of mass tourism, which led to the concreting of the coastline and the creation of gigantic hotel complexes with hotels, casinos and marinas, as on Cap Malabata. But even during this period, some people opted for different, more personal projects. Mohammed Benaïssa, the mayor of Asilah, decided to transform his town into a work of art, creating numerous cultural events, such as those held in August, which invited artists from all over the world to cover the walls of the medina with their works and even rethink the paving. In Ceuta, the famous architect Cesar Manrique, who is responsible for some of the finest architectural projects in the Canary Islands, designed the Parque Maritimo del Mediterraneo. Manrique drew inspiration from the city's ramparts to redesign the waterfront, incorporating two saltwater swimming pools, hotels and restaurants and even a small artificial island for the casino.
The 1980s saw the beginnings of a new awareness in Tangier: the need to preserve the city's ancient heritage and to campaign against the excessive concrete development of the coastline. Thanks to the efforts of numerous conservation associations, the city's original fishing port was restored at the foot of the medina, and the large commercial port was relocated some 40 km away. This gigantic maritime complex, known as Tangier Med, bears the hallmark of the famous architect Jean Nouvel. He designed the master plan for Tanger Med I and II, and was responsible for the complex's business center, which he organized around courtyards and terraces. The immaculately white facade, 450 m long and 50 m wide, is punctuated by lace-like moucharabiehs. The "Tangier Metropolis 2014-2017" project, whose effects are still being felt today, has also boosted urban development, while attempting to apply a reasoned master plan to the city, with the destruction of shantytowns and the creation of popular housing estates better connected to the city, these include the Nouvelle Ville Ibn Batouta, close to the airport, which boasts a new stadium and, above all, a new university hospital inspired by local architecture, with its moucharabiehs, large canopy and monumental forecourt designed to keep out the heat and filter the light. New buildings have also appeared in the heart of the city, such as the Tangier City Center, with its facade clad in smoked glass, or the new train station, with its simple volumes and square towers decorated with mosaics reminiscent of Islamic architecture. At the same time, a number of architects have opted for rehabilitation to reconnect the city with its history. This is notably the case with the Museum of Modern Art, which will open in late 2021 in the former Kasbah prison, and whose original structure has been preserved, and with the recently launched project to restore the city's former Arena to its former glory, whose original brick structure will be preserved while being protected by a lightweight structure modelled on Roman velum. The project is one of the first to be the subject of an architectural competition... the start of a new adventure for Tangier!
